Investigation of the Effective Parameters on Lead Carbonate Mineral Flotation in Laboratory Scale

The aim of this study is to optimize the effective parameters for cerussite flotation to concentrate it with an acceptable assay and recovery values. To do this, the effect of parameters such as: frother dosage, sodium sulfide dosage, potassium amyl xanthate, Danafloat 507, Danafloat 233, Danafloat 245, sodium isobutyl xanthate and sodium isopropyl xanthate as collector, collector dosage, grinding time, solid content, pH , Aeration at conditioning time, increasing conditioning time, desliming, regrinding, scavenger and add collector step by step were investigated. Then, under optimum conditions, cleaner tests were carried out in different conditions. The results showed that on rougher stage, on carbonated lead sample with grade of 6.5, under optimum conditions of pine oil 30 g/ton, 5000 g/ton of sodium sulfide as cerussite sulfidizer agent, 1000 g/ton of collector 507, d80 75 micron, pH 9, solid content of 30, was obtain a concentrate with a grade of 17.0 and recovery of 81.7. However, the grade of Pb in the final tail is about 1.8%. Increasing the conditioning time for sodium sulfide, collector and pine oil from respectively 10, 4 and 1 minutes to 15, 6 and 2 minutes resulted in a slight increase in grade and a slight reduction in the recovery. Finally, in the cleaner stage, when fresh water and half of the chemicals used in the rougher stage were used, after 6 stage of cleaning, was obtain the final concentrate with assay and total recovery respectively 63.8% and 57.5%.